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Alumna makes Super Bowl & Olympics picture perfect

For many, attending the Super Bowl is a “bucket list” experience. So is getting to witness an Olympic Games in person. Doing both within the span of a few days? That’s the stuff of dreams – and it’s just what Elon alumna Angie Lovelace Walton ’10 is doing through her job at USA TODAY.

Angie Walton ’10 is having a pretty exciting week. On Sunday, Walton worked at East Rutherford, N.J.’s MetLife Stadium during Super Bowl XLVIII. By mid-week she’ll be in Sochi, Russia, in time for the start of the Winter Olympics.

How? Walton is a photo editor for USA TODAY Sports. As photographers along the sidelines snap pictures, the images are instantly delivered to Walton from Ethernet-connected cameras. She crops, color-corrects and captions the photos and then makes sure they’re delivered to USA TODAY, additional Gannett-owned newspapers and television stations, as well as other editorial clients all around the world.

While she also worked last year’s Super Bowl, this will be her first trip to the Olympics.

“I’m thrilled,” she said of her month-long stretch at some of the world’s biggest sporting events. “It’s a chance of a lifetime.”

Walton doesn’t have a front row seat for the action – she spent most of her time at MetLife tucked away at a computer for much of the game – but she gets closer than many of us can dream. In Sochi, Walton will work in the “mountain cluster,” where the skiing, snowboarding and luge events will take place.

While at Elon, Walton was an Honors Fellow, a journalism major and worked for the Pendulum. Now she’ll be processing and sending pictures of Olympic athletes to their hometown newspapers all over the world.

And while questions abound over Sochi’s preparedness for Games, Walton is looking forward to whatever awaits her.

“I think everybody’s questioning security and if it’s going to be successful,” she said. “But I’m excited to go and experience the international intensity.”

You can follow along with Walton's experiences on Twitter at @AngieWalton528, though she says she'll mainly be sharing images through the @USATsportsimage account.